Phase 12: The Transitive Property of Equality

The Transitive Property of Equality was completed in 2015, just prior to the artist’s death, while she was an Artist-In-Residence at Krowswork- a center for video and visionary art. This interactive collage represents phase 12 of Rapoport’s Objects on My Dresser series. Rendered on newspaper pages, The Transitive Property of Equality is also part of the late-period New York Times series.

“Objects On My Dresser, Phase 12: The Transitive Property of Equality” (detail – The Skin – The Teeth – The Gaze), 26 collages – handwritten notes on paper on newsprint pages from The New York Times, 2015.

This meditation on artmaking is structured according to the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah. Short phrases from fellow Resident Anne Lesley Selcer’s poem The Natural World (2014) are collaged onto matching advertising images, many of women, and paired with an original object on a shelf.

“Objects On My Dresser, Phase 12: The Transitive Property of Equality”, 26 collages – handwritten notes on paper on newsprint pages from The New York Times, 2015.

Viewers were invited to participate in an installation built according to Rapoport’s specifications. They were asked to select an object and match it with a poetic phrase and a page from the New York Times. They then recorded their choices by placing colored glass beads in a grid.